Taipei Tryst Pt. 01

The heavy silver security gate swung back to reveal the open street. It did not reveal the beginnings of a bright and sunny day. The time was ten minutes to eight in the morning but the impenetrable grey hanging from the sky gave no impression of that time, rather that everyone had awaken to dusk. This was not unusual for an especially cool Taipei morning, on some days it could enhance your feeling of excitement and adventure, on other days it would depress all feeling.

As he stepped out onto the narrow lane, out of the dark cloistered confines of his apartment complex, he surveyed the sky with wide eyes whilst controlling the weight of the security door behind him to close it with a gentle click, rather than the wall-shaking slam that might otherwise occur if he didn't. The clouds were indeed heavy, black in parts. In assurance he dangled his trusty compact umbrella on his slender wrist by the thin cord on the bottom of the handle, like jingling a bell on a bangle. However what was unusual that morning was how strong the gust of wind was that kicked it up from his wrist and caused it to slap into his palm. His long flowing black hair breezed and flapped about his face as he squinted his eyes amidst the gale.

Even from right outside his apartment gate, peering down the lane, the fruit shop could be sighted. He turned right from his apartment gate and wistfully strolled the one minute length of Lane 16 Taishun Jie (Street) towards it. Lane 16 was a typical narrow Taipei back street where one car would struggle to squeeze through. It was caved in on both sides by tightly packed mid-rise apartment buildings embellished with the greenery of well-watered pot plants on balconies and on the edge of the road, as well as the odd overgrown native Asian tree which had sprawled up over the confines of its own enclosure.

The end of the lane was intersected by the main Taishun Jie, where now two cars could struggle to squeeze through. On the other side of the street on the corner was the Taishun Fresh Fruit Shop. On a normal day it would have been an exceptional hub of early morning activity, whereas the surrounding food stores and carts that lined Taishun Jie would still be shuttered for hours. Beneath its jungle green canvas awnings overhanging the bright green and white signs with its name, 阿姨 Ah-Yi's (middle aged women) would be busily sifting through the available produce, while a couple of whiskered deliverymen heaved boxes of fresh fruit into the stands. But this time as he approached Taishun Jie he saw that it was as shuttered up as everywhere else.

He stepped out of the lane way and crossed Taishun Jie to take a closer look at the closed fruit shop. The dull, moisture-worn metal shutter door right before his eyes gave no clues as to why there was no business today. He glanced quickly about the outside of the shop, no one was about, it looked like there would be nothing happening. He exhaled an irritated huff whilst in a lumbering motion he wheeled his body around to the left like a clown on stilts and rolled his head. But before he had completed his awkward turn his heart skipped a beat and his body almost tripped over itself - he glimpsed her, it was her, her figure was unmistakeable in this part of the world. Her gait was both elegant and athletic as she approached down Taishun Jie, from the direction of Heping Dong Lu (Road) - the major traffic road about fifty metres away. The one he only knew as the beautiful black girl.

*

"Is it.. him? Oh my, yes it is. Should I stop? No, he'll just see me stop in the middle of the road staring at him. Keep moving. Is this my chance to talk to him? He's right outside the fruit shop. He must want to buy fruit. So do I. I'll talk to him about fruit? No stupid! Just keep walking until you reach him and hope he recognises you!" Angie's mind raced with her personal dilemma the same way her heart did as she caught sight of her crush, the one she only knew as the beautiful Asian boy. This seemingly divine opportunity actually felt like a hellish trial because of how unprepared she was, and how unexpected it was for her chance to come on this morning's quest to buy fruit.

She knew him from the Chinese language school for foreigners that they both studied at - one of the most renowned and attached to one of Taiwan's best universities. The first time she had laid eyes upon him was five weeks ago as she stood outside of her classroom and peered down the hallway. She had sighted him in a pose with his arms crossed, his back leant against the wall next to his classroom door, one leg slightly raised with knee bent and the sole of his foot pressed against the wall behind him, his head slightly bowed and his distinctive oriental features painted in an expression of contemplation. She was captivated.

She studied that first sight of him, like a photograph flashed into her memory, every detail. He looked rather young, in his very early twenties but just as likely even in his mid-twenties like her, with Asians she knew to still expect surprises as to their true ages. With her relatively limited exposure to Asian people and society at that time, her first impression was that he was Japanese, or even Korean. His eyes and his hair were his most distinctive features. Singularly, they were the type she found most alluring, put together, they were irresistible.

His eyes were of the classical almond shape exclusive to East-Asians. Not quite thin slits, they retained a semblance of roundness to them which slanted so slightly upwards at the outer. The combination of such a shape and angle was typical to the Chinese and described as 鳳眼 fengyan (Phoenix eyes). The round shape of the middle trailed off sharply into each corner, analogous to the finishing of an ink stroke in Chinese calligraphy. This matched perfectly with the dark brown hue of his pupils and relatively long eyelashes to give him the most fetching Chinese eyes.

His eyebrows further complemented them, they were both distinctive and masculine, with the slightest hook towards the outside as if tracing the sharpness of the eyes below, yet at the same time delicately shaped and perhaps flawless, such that one might not notice them at all because they blended in so perfectly with his eyes and face as a whole.

His nose was shapely, of the type exhibited more by Northern Chinese - straight and more sharpish, delicate and perhaps somewhat feminine. His cheeks and jaw muscles were slightly more prominent than usual however, which gave his face a softer and generally rounder look than might otherwise be suggested by the sharpness of his other facial features. This also contributed to him having rather fuller lips than other East-Asians, with the top lip coming to a fleshy point at the centre and which perked slightly upwards when closed together, forming indentations that weren't quite dimples at the corner of his lips where they met his cheeks.

But to just about all people, his hair was the most striking thing about his appearance. What may have been considered normal, and even expected in Imperial China more than five hundred years ago was anything but normal now, even in Taiwan. He had left it long, totally uncut. The front and part of the sides to just behind his ear was pulled up and tied into a prominent and neat 髮髻 faji (bun / topknot) about an inch back from the very centre of the top of his head, whilst he usually left the back long which draped almost halfway down his back. A long, handsome strip of red cloth about two inches in width was tied around the bottom of the faji so that two lengths fell down to his shoulders as easily as hair.

The clothes he wore seemed to be custom designed and made to emulate the form of 漢服 hanfu (Chinese robes). Just not quite as large or impractical, and in separate pieces. She loved his style, like he was someone who truly evolved from Ancient China into the present and thus could carry the delicate balance of modernity and tradition.

He wasn't a big guy at five-feet-six where she was slightly taller at five-feet-eight, but the way he carried himself, his style and dress sense, and his perfectly proportioned body meant that it seemed of no consequence, or at least in her eyes it wasn't to his detriment. In fact, in the few brief moments when they had passed each other in the cramped hallway of their class floor, his height gave her a particularly intimate perspective which she thoroughly appreciated. Their bodies and eyes were just about on the same level for him to seem approachable, while him being slightly shorter gave her the urge to engulf his fine figure in her arms and devour him as he gently brushed past her. But if only she could.

*

He felt like such an idiot. Here she was, the girl of his dreams walking towards him with no one else around and he had lost his balance and almost fallen onto the road at the mere sight of her. His heart was pounding, his body felt overly warm and his face felt swollen and hot despite the fresh Autumn morning temperature and constant wind that seemed to become more and more forceful. He only hoped that the awful clumsiness which he felt was not so obvious to her and that she hadn't linked it with her appearance in front of him.

"妳好 Ni hao (Hello)." He managed to stammer, having quickly composed himself.

"你好 Ni hao." Her reply was brisk. She stopped in front of him, a friendly smile on her face, a hint of a sparkle in her amber eyes? His heart thudded, he hastily swallowed, almost like a hiccup. Another embarrassing betrayal of his body which he hoped she didn't notice. She hadn't just walked right past him to get on with her business like he had half expected, she was standing there right in front of him because she actually recognised him enough to have an amiable chat! Was this the chance he never thought he would have to finally become friends with her?

*

Though they were never in any classes together, their classrooms were on the same floor of the university building. They were able to catch glimpses of each other now and again in the square passage hallway which they shared. In fact, if they ever left their classrooms during class they would always find themselves drawn to walk past each others classroom to steal a look inside at their secret crush.

Because of their incredibly strong attraction to each other, this rebounded onto each an equally strong self-consciousness and insecurity. She had observed that he was in the 華僑 hua-chiao (Overseas Chinese) class and always surrounded by his ABC (American Born Chinese) or other foreign Chinese classmates who seemed to have their own little clique going, which she in no way dared to intrude upon. On top of this, his Chinese proficiency was much more advanced than hers which made her feel that she was not on the same communicable level as him, and he would think her dumb if she tried to talk to him.

The beauty that he saw, he figured every other guy would too, and thus he had no chance. She looked to be the absolute pinnacle of womanly hotness - tall, with rich black skin and a firm athletic body with naturally short brown-black hair that accentuated her curves in all the right places. Her breasts and buttocks were full yet taut, her limbs and torso not overly thick but still with a healthy volume and muscle tone.

The clothes she wore were of casual or sporty attire and very colourful. She was a practical girl who put comfort first, but she would have looked good in anything. He considered her to be a sensible girl in keeping her hair short and wearing lighter more comfortable clothing in the testing hot and humid Taiwan climate. In the same situations his hair would often stick to his skin and his sweat would dampen his clothes. And there was also no denying that he thoroughly appreciated the secondary effect of such clothes revealing a tantalising peek at her ebony skin and sublime body.

She possessed a pretty face with sumptuous lips and a defined and attractive bone structure about her chin and jaw. Her eyes were supremely expressive and could sometimes appear very ordinary, and on rare occasions even small, to only flash large and round at the whim of her emotions with captivating earthy amber pupils.

He knew that she was American, unlike himself, but hazarded that she had some more recently arrived African migrant ancestry, perhaps a parent or grandparent who had married into the local African-American community. He had no evidence of this, only naively surmising from the darker, richer, cocoa skin that she had that he found so attractive, which strangely enough, despite its blackness seemed to shine in any light as if polished, so smooth it was.

Mostly when he had seen her she was standing around with other foreigners appearing to be animatedly chatting with them, mostly white or other European girls and big, obnoxious white guys. He wasn't sure if they were only from her class or if she had made new acquaintances, he hadn't paid enough attention to them. But apart from brief elementary conversation with some tiny Japanese girls who also may or may not be in her class, it didn't look like she had much to do with Asians, especially Asian guys.

Although, he didn't mind her being distracted and talking to her own group so much as it allowed him to just look at her and 觀賞 guanshang (enjoyment / appreciation of looking), but he would shyly turn away if her focus happened to shift in his direction. What he didn't know however, was that she would be doing the exact same thing while he was momentarily distracted talking to his own classmates in the hallway. And thus for five weeks, their only previous acquaintance with each other was so.

*

As it was still early into the semester and their enthusiasm for learning Chinese had not yet waned, the two diligent students sputtered their conversation to life in very basic Mandarin. Even though each had English as their native language, they would feel guilty taking the easy way out. "You study at the Chinese centre." It was the safest entrance he could make.

"Yes. I know you from there." She felt both gratified and relieved that he actually recognised her, but if he didn't then he would have to have been blind or just a pompous jerk.

He bashfully averted her gaze as he turned his head to the right and inspected the rust-dotted shutter door up and down. "I wanted to buy fruit this morning, but it's closed." He said with an exaggerated frown.

"Really? I also wanted to buy fruit! But why is it closed?" Almost immediately a howling gale caught them both by surprise, his sleeves flapped around and felt like they were inflating and almost floating him off his feet. With her hair so short and face exposed she shrivelled up her face as it was uncomfortably buffeted by the air. Through her narrow vision in front of her she could see fans of his long black hair blowing all about his pretty face which she found startlingly exciting.

"颱風! Taifeng! (The typhoon!)" They both exclaimed. Repeated warnings at the school and public notices seemed to have escaped their attention until now, with it beginning to bear down upon them. And as if on cue, just as suddenly the accompanying downpour began. The noise of the sheer mass of water was so disorientating that they noticed it more than the feeling of the equivalent of several buckets of water being doused over them.

He scrambled to open his little pop-up umbrella around his wrist whilst her hand frantically delved into her carry bag to search for her own. "Oh no!" Why forget it at a time like this?!

Seeing her obvious distress at her bag coming up empty for any umbrella, he waved his around in front of her just before pressing the open-release button. "I have an umbrella!" He yelled above the crashing sound of the downpour. In a robotic process the squat maroon umbrella extended forward like a punch before its thin spidery metal stretchers spread and held the cover over them, giving them all of two seconds of respite from the spray before it was violently snapped backwards on itself by the powerful wind and ripped right off the shaft.

"Fuck!" He swore as he helplessly watched the top of his umbrella bounding down Taishun Jie and disappear from view before he yanked what was left of it off his wrist and threw it down on the flooded road. "Sorry!" He turned back to her, feeling that he had let her down, blowing a chance to be her saviour.

Instead of any distress, what he saw on her face was a quivering smile breaking into uncontrolled laughter. "Sorry." She managed back, in between chuckles. He responded to her warmly with his own laughter, but his mind quickly shifted to matters at hand as he really did want to get out of this rain! In emergency situations such as this he figured it was entirely justifiable to drop the Chinese act and speak in English so that she could understand him enough to get out of this typhoon.

"My place is just up there!" He motioned frantically over to Lane 16 from which he had just come. "We can run back now and stay in the lobby until it settles down if you want!"

"Okay!" She nodded emphatically, the rain splashing down her hair and face like watery beads.

"Okay! Follow me!" He turned to glance at her only once to say this before darting up the lane like a sprite, his speed and running motion incredibly swift and so light that he hardly made a splash that was distinguishable from the wider torrent. She hurried off after him with more of a splash, but it didn't matter, she was already drenched.

She was surprised at how close the place actually was, such that she almost kept running past him when he stopped to open the gate. The key to the security gate was annoyingly slippery as he fiddled to align it with the keyhole. By the time she had caught up to him she heard the click of the lock before he shoulder-barged the thick steel door open. They both rushed inside to the shelter of the outdoor lobby - a sort of patio between the foyer and security gate, with a flat roof that extended out from the main building to the wall which housed the security gate. There were several bicycles parked in racks just outside the foyer door, and also a large tropical tree with evergreen maple-like leaves planted in the corner not covered by the roof and closest to the road.

Panting from the sprint and dripping sizeable puddles onto the reddish sun-coloured tiled ground wherever they stepped, they shook the excess water off their clothes and bodies as best they could. But the typhoon rain was still so strong that a fine spray of it still bounced inside between the gap of the roof and the wall. Without another word he unlocked the front door to the foyer and held it open for her, waving her inside before following.

After stepping inside, Angie spent a moment to survey the foyer. She thought it quite impressive for a fellow student's apartment block. It was clean and modern with white stone floors and an unattended black polished stone front counter at the other end of the room. To her right just beside the front door was a black leather lounge and a low rectangular glass table. There was another glass door and window straight ahead which seemed to open to another outdoor space. And to her left past a small corner was a shiny lift.

The only not so good thing was the particularly dim lighting provided by the weak glow of a single yellow oyster light in the centre of the ceiling which may have lost some of its luminance, or else it seemed so dim because it was just a particularly dark day. But in her time in Taiwan she had observed that low lighting seemed to be commonplace because of a strong attitude toward saving electricity.

She turned her attention back to him, wanting to resume their conversation, no, their introduction, before they were caught by the storm. He was patiently standing there as if awaiting her whim, his clothes were heavy and saturated. The moist, soft Asian skin of his face looked especially luscious coated with raindrops. She resumed in her level one Chinese. "Zhe li hen hao (This place is really good)."